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A founding member of the Red Scorpion gang entered a surprise guilty plea in B.C. Supreme Court Thursday afternoon to conspiracy to commit murder for his role in the Surrey Six slaughter of Oct. 19, 2007.

METRO VANCOUVER — A founding member of the Red Scorpion gang entered a surprise guilty plea in B.C. Supreme Court Thursday afternoon to conspiracy to commit murder for his role in the Surrey Six slaughter of Oct. 19, 2007.

As a result of his plea, a charge of first-degree murder for the death of Lal, a rival drug dealer, was stayed.

Le's sentencing hearing has been scheduled for Dec. 17.

"The circumstances that Crown will be alleging against him will be put before the court at that time, as will the Crown's position on an appropriate sentence," Crown spokesman Neil MacKenzie said outside court. "Crown considers this to be an appropriate resolution in relation to Mr. Le, obviously, or we would not have accepted this disposition — this plea."

Families of the victims, reporters and spectators packed the public gallery for the two-hour hearing, much of which was under a publication ban.

Grieving mother Eileen Mohan said afterward that Le's acceptance of responsibility did nothing to bring back her son Christopher, one of the bystanders caught in the massacre in suite 1505 across from her family's apartment.

"It's good to get a guilty (plea) but it doesn't mean, for me, that my pain goes away," Mohan said, her voice breaking. "If Mr. Le had a conscience, he should not have conspired to kill, knowing his rivals lived among innocent people."

The judge imposed a new ban Thursday on the publication of any photographs or images of Le. But the reasons for the ban are also covered by the ban, which was opposed by The Vancouver Sun and other media outlets.

Since the murder trial of Le and co-accused Cody Haevischer and Matthew Johnston began in B.C. Supreme Court on Sept. 30, Le has followed along closely, often writing notes on a computer as he sat in the prisoner's box. He did not appear to interact with his two co-accused, who learned just this week that he would be pleading guilty.

Neither Haevischer nor Johnston was in court for Le's plea.

Very little of the evidence in the first eight weeks of the trial related to Le, who the Crown alleged in the opening was a leader of the Red Scorpions along with accused killer Jamie Bacon.

Prosecutor Mark Levitz said Sept. 30 that Le and Bacon ordered the murder of Lal because he had refused to pay a $100,000 tax to the Red Scorpions.

And Levitz said that Lal's associates — his brother Michael Lal, Ryan Bartolomeo and Eddie Narong — along with Mohan and bystander Ed Schellenberg were executed so there would be no witnesses.

While Levitz said that the murders at the Balmoral were planned in advance, he told court the actual plot was carried out over about 90 minutes on the afternoon of Oct. 19. Between 1 and 1:30 p.m., Johnston left a Surrey Korean restaurant where he was meeting Le and another conspirator, he said.

Johnston went to the Balmoral and met with a Red Scorpion associate who lived in the building and handed over a fob that would allow the group entry, Levitz said.

The lead Crown also said it was Haevischer, Johnston and Person X, whose name is protected by a separate publication ban, who went to the Balmoral, but that other evidence — including admissions made after the fact — would implicate Le in the conspiracy.

Le, now 28, fled to his native Vietnam after the Surrey Six murders. He was arrested on June 17, 2009 as he landed in the Philippines on a flight from Vietnam and charged with conspiracy to kill Lal, as well as first-degree murder.

The maximum penalty for conspiracy is life in prison, but there is no minimum sentence. Le is expected to get two-for-one credit for his time in pre-trial custody, for a total of nine years.

Le has a long history with police on the Lower Mainland.

Both he and Surrey Six victim Eddie Narong were convicted of manslaughter for their role in a fatal beating outside a Coquitlam karaoke club in 2000.

The death occurred after Le, then a friend of Narong's, was beaten by a group of youths. Le then called in more than 20 friends to retaliate, which ended with the fatal assault on Jung.

Le was originally convicted of second-degree murder in the death, but won a new trial on appeal, then pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Narong, who testified against some of his co-accused, also pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Le and Narong had a falling-out after Narong testified.

Some of those convicted in the case went on to form the Red Scorpions while in jail. The gang members sported scorpion tattoos and were involved in drug trafficking in Coquitlam and other Lower Mainland suburbs.

Le has had several convictions since then for uttering threats, driving while prohibited and drug possession for the purpose of trafficking. He is believed to have brought Bacon and his brothers Jonathan and Jarrod into the Red Scorpions.

Bacon is also charged with conspiracy and first-degree murder in the slaying of Corey Lal, but he is being tried separately at a later date.

Eileen Mohan speaks outside of B.C. Supreme Court in downtown Vancouver on November 28, 2013 following Michael Le pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit the murder of Corey Lal in 2007. Mohan's sun was an innocent bystander who got killed in the crossfire that left six people dead.